Getty Investors Experience WILD Full Circle Moment After Perplexity Deal… (Pour One Out For Bulls)

Getty Images walked, so AI could run… 

Getty Images has officially made peace with the AI that’s been stealing from it. On Friday, the company announced a multi-year licensing deal with Perplexity AI… a.k.a., the ChatGPT-for-people-who-read-footnotes… and for a few glorious hours, investors acted like Getty had just discovered fire. The stock exploded 67%, while Shutterstock (read: the knock off Getty), went along for the ride booming 23% because of it. 

(Source: Giphy) 

But then… reality set in. Investors seemed to end up experiencing a wild case of post-nut clarity as Getty gave it all back and closed down nearly 7%. Meaning, this was one of those rare moments when a stock chart actually captures the full emotional range of the internet: excitement, confusion, collapse. So what exactly happened? In short, Perplexity gets access to Getty’s massive library of creative and editorial imagery. In return, it agrees to do the bare minimum… credit the source, add links, and pretend to care about copyright. The press release called it “a step toward responsible AI integration.” What it really is, is a truce between the thieves and the robbed.

(Source: CNBC) 

What’s funny though, is that Shutterstock wasn’t even part of the deal, but traders treated it like it was Getty’s twin. That’s how shallow the logic gets right now… if one photo company touches AI, they all get a halo. Somewhere in the chaos, investors forgot that most AI firms still think “licensing” means right-click + save as. With that said, this is nothing more than survival for Getty. The company spent years watching its images become AI training data without so much as a thank-you note. Now it’s selling access to that same data, like a hostage monetizing its own ransom. The money helps, the irony stings.

(Source: Giphy) 

As for Perplexity, they get what every AI start up wants… and that’s legitimacy. Meanwhile, Getty gets the faint illusion of control. Which is precisely why the market whiplash made sense. A morning rally built on narrative, an afternoon collapse built on friggin’ common sense. Whereas now, Getty is down -4% on the day and Shutterstock is down a massive -9.76% on the day. Reality sucks, eh? Of course, anything can happen… but the writing has been on the wall for a while: Legacy media will formally surrender and call it innovation. From here, everyone else will follow once they realize resistance doesn’t pay dividends. Until next time, friends…

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.